AUGUSTA, GA – The time has come to see if the leaders of downtown and west Augusta are really looking out for the best interests of all of Richmond County.

For almost 20 years, elected officials in south Augusta have been trying to breathe life back into the areasurrounding the former Regency Mall site. The biggest push came back in 1998, when a handful of south Augustans were fighting to relocate the county offices to the Regency Mall building because it was located in the center of the county.

But even with some of the most charismatic political leaders in Richmond County’s history supporting the cause, including former Mayor Larry Sconyers, now Senator J.B. Powell and former Augusta commissioners Ulmer Bridges and Moses Todd, there still was never enough hot air out in south Augusta to get the idea off the ground.

Well, the folks out by Deans Bridge Road and Gordon Highway might have one last chance to get the political boost they need.

City Administrator Fred Russell, Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength and several commissioners are looking at the possibility of moving the sheriff’s administration building to a 4-acre site at the former Smartway Furniture building in the Southgate Shopping Center on Gordon Highway.

The sheriff is in desperate need of a new administration building and south Augusta commissioners could not be happier. Not only would the sheriff’s department bring hundreds of employees out to south Augusta, but it would also provide a huge sense of security back to the area.

Commissioners Jimmy Smith and Bill Lockett looked as if they wanted to run up and hug Strength last week when he was discussing the possible new location.
While the SouthgateShopping Center is not quite the former Regency Mall location, it’s close enough.

South Augusta needs this.

The residents out there need to wash away the failing legacy of Regency Mall, now nicknamed“Regency Mold.”

Constructed in July 1978 by renowned developer Edward DeBartolo, Regency Mall was once home to more than 70 retail stores. However, over the past 30 years,the more than 800,000-square-foot facility off Gordon Highway gradually saw every single one of its stores vanish.

Today, the only thing left thriving inside this south Augusta landmark is fuzzy green mold.

Around 2004, Richmond County Marshal Steve Smith was the final tenant to move out of Regency Mall. Even though the marshal’s office had the cheapest rent in town with a bill of $1,000 a month for 5,000 square feet of space, the conditions in the building were quickly becoming dangerously inhabitable.

The marshal’s department had no choice but to relocate.

Since that time, that section of south Augusta has been in complete limbo.
All the south Augustacommissioners need is a little bit of support from either the downtown commissioners or the west Augusta and Hill commissioners and the sheriff’s administration building can call south Augusta home.

But there are already a few rumors that some commissioners want to keep the sheriff’s administrative offices in the downtown area, close to the new judicial center. There has already been the mention of the old pension property on Reynolds Street along the Savannah River near the Augusta Museum of History as a possible site.

While that location may sound more appealing to the downtown and west Augusta commissioners, they need to stop and think about what a sheriff’s headquarters would mean for south Augusta.

If one person can convince the commissioners that the Southgate Shopping Center is the future home of the sheriff’s department, it’s the former lawman himself: Sheriff Charlie Webster.

Webster is one of the last remaining members of the group that locals fondly call the “Southside Mafia.”

For more than 50 years, the Southside Mafia was under the leadership of legendary lawyer Roy Harris, who ruled not only south Augusta, but all of Richmond County politics.
Back then, attorney and former state legislator George Nicholson and radio station owner Chester Jones began regularly meeting with Harris.

The Southside Mafia was born.

Over the years, the groupbecame a south Augusta powerhouse. The Southside Mafia practically decided who was going to represent south Augusta in office and they shaped the future of the county.

While some say it is dangerous to have a group that is so powerfulcontrolling one area of the city, south Augusta needs a little bit of its strength back.

It needs to prove to the folks in west Augusta and downtown that south Augusta is still a force to be reckoned with.